Three days of national mourning decreed, the UN "indignant", Burkina Faso is still paying a heavy price in the war against jihadism.
The north of the country was hit by two attacks in a few hours, one of which killed at least 160 people including around 20 children, according to a latest report, the deadliest in this country since the start of the insurgency in 2015.
The most important massacre took place in Solhan, capital of the department of the same name near the border with Mali and Niger in the area known as the "three borders".
This city is a crossroads known to shelter thousands of miners who came to look for gold.
Around two o'clock in the morning, on the night of Friday June 4 to Saturday June 5, assailants invaded the city aboard about twenty motorcycles.
Their first target was a post of the Volunteers for the Defense of the Fatherland (VDP), auxiliaries of the Armed Forces within the framework of the fight against terrorism.
Then the terrorists headed for the houses and massacred civilians without distinction of age or sex.
According to security sources cited by RFI, the age of the victims varies between 8 months and 45 years.
A large majority are young people.
In Burkina Faso, nearly 80% of the population is under 35 years old.
The attackers also looted, burned shops and burned vehicles before leaving at five o'clock.
This attack has not yet been claimed but two large groups, which operate in the area, are singled out: the Support Group for Islam and Muslims (GSIM), a subsidiary of Al-Qaida, and the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara (EIGS).
In addition to these two main actors, there are more or less structured local groups such as Ansarul Islam, a movement founded at the end of 2016 by the radical imam Ibrahim Malam Dicko.
Help that comes too late
The armed forces would have arrived one to two hours after the departure of the jihadists.
“The massacrers were able to carry out their work of death without being disturbed while you have military detachments supposed to be about twenty kilometers away”, explains journalist Vincent Hugeux on France 24.
Indeed, armed forces are stationed in Sebba, located about ten kilometers from Solhan, in the same province of Yagha.
How to explain such a long intervention time?
"Access to Solhan is difficult, there is no road. It is a track", details the Burkinabé researcher Mahamoudou Savadogo, specialist in security questions, joined by France 24. "We must also be very careful to the mines which are placed by the terrorists on the route of the security forces who must therefore exercise great caution ”.
According to a local elected official quoted by AFP, three civilians also lost their lives on the Solhan-Sebba axis after the attack when the cart carrying them jumped on an artisanal mine.
"The Burkinabé army is also often under-equipped", specifies for France 24 Tanguy Quidelleur, researcher at the Institute of Social Sciences of Politics and connoisseur of Burkina Faso. “Moreover, intervening at night is extremely dangerous. Even during the day, they hesitate to patrol certain areas and prefer to barricade themselves”.
The attack comes a few weeks after the visit to the region of the Burkinabe Minister of Defense.
Chérif Sy then hailed an improvement in the security situation.
This move was to symbolize the reconquest of central power after months of jihadist influence.
“The sequence is disturbing.
The Minister of Defense had indeed had the imprudence to observe a form of return to normalcy and had also visited the Sebba detachment on this occasion, ”recalls Vincent Hugeux.
"One can get the impression that this is a reaction to government action," confirms Mahamoudou Savadogo.
"It's also a communication war," he adds.
The Solhan attack would therefore mark a new milestone in the destabilization campaign targeting the Burkinabé state, already weakened and incapable of ensuring the safety of the inhabitants of rural areas.
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Civilians in danger
During the Solhan massacre, the first victims were members of the VDP, civilians trained militarily in two weeks to support the counterinsurgency.
"With the rise in insecurity since 2015, a galaxy of self-defense groups has emerged," recalls Tanguy Quidelleur.
"These groups were institutionalized in 2020 with the creation of the VDP, responsible for supporting the regular army with intelligence but also operational missions."
While the VDPs have had significant success in certain regions, specialists interviewed by France 24 indicate that they also expose civilian populations to reprisals.
"Since February, the jihadists have undertaken to wage an open war against the VDP", explains Mahamoudou Savadogo.
"In Solhan, the VDP post was attacked and then civilians were massacred because they were considered accomplices. We can think of a cycle of vendetta," assumes Tanguy Quidelleur.
"Some VDPs themselves may have been guilty of abuses against populations accused of collaborating or having family ties with jihadists".
>> To (re) read on France 24: In Burkina Faso, civilians in the sights of jihadists
Unlike other attacks, the attackers made no distinction between men and women, young people and adults.
"There is a war of influence between the GSIM and the Islamic State in the tri-border area. Perhaps this massacre of civilians is a maneuver by the Islamic State to discredit Al-Qaeda operating in the area. ? ", says Mahamoudou Savadogo.
Regardless, civilians are increasingly targeted in Burkina Faso.
The attack on Solhan had been preceded a few hours earlier by another attack in the village of Tadaryat, in which at least 14 people, including a civilian auxiliary, were killed.
A week earlier, four people - including two VDP members - were killed in two other attacks in the same area.
"After targeting the symbols of the state, the jihadists began to attack civilians from 2019 and 2020 because some being armed, they are considered combatants," Mahamoudou Savadogo analyzes.
Since 2015, jihadist violence has killed more than 1,400 and displaced more than a million people in Burkina Faso.
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